The automotive industry is attempting to better protect pedestrians from head on collisions with vehicles. When a car hits a pedestrian in a front end collision, the pedestrian can be thrown up and land on the front hood of the vehicle and/or the windshield. In an effort to ameliorate the harshness of the impact, and in particular to prevent the person's head from hitting the engine block or other hard point located directly underneath the front hood, it is desired to actively space the front hood from the engine block whenever a front end collision is detected. In particular, when a front end collision is detected by crash sensors, it is desired to move the front hood in a very short period of time (e.g., in milliseconds) from a first aerodynamic position where the front hood is normally located very close to the engine block to a second position where the front hood is actively moved further away from the engine block. This activity could provide the pedestrian's head and/or torso with sufficient time and/or space to decelerate when the pedestrian impacts the front hood and thus prevent fatal injury.
Other problems in industry related to safety systems is actuation speed and/or actuation distance of safety devices (e.g. device response time) tempered with actuation power requirements, including the ability for the vehicle systems to return to normal operation after deployment of the safety systems. A further problem in industry is the need for reduced cost of safety systems, including modular components to facilitate replacement a reduction in replacement costs.